Chapter 19 The Shanghai Salome Unveiled
George Chan sat up startled from his pleasant recollection when he heard a
gentle tap at the door.
"Mr Chan?"
"Yes, Miss Teng. Come in."
The pretty young housemaid poked her head through the doorway. "A young
boy just delivered a message from Ming-tsu." The housemaid's lips turned down
slightly; she had not been overly fond of George's rather bossy former lover.
She had been a little surprised when her employer's relationship with the
beautiful night club owner had apparently ended many months ago. Or had it?
"Let me see."
Miss Teng stepped gracefully across the thick carpet and handed the note to
George. She was a pretty young thing, thought George. If it were not for the
fact that she was the daughter of one of his brother's trusted servants, he
would have taken her to his bed long ago. There was a nice little twitch to her
hips when she moved that made her most pleasant to have around; if her bedroom
demeanour were half as alluring as the subtle sensuality of her ordinary
movements around the house and office...
George moved a hand impatiently as if to brush the thought away. He
thanked the maid, dismissed her and read the note. In it Ming-tsu suggested
that she had news for him and would stop by to see him in a hour.
George felt his manhood stir slightly beneath his desk. He had deprived
himself of her erotic talents for too long; it would be good to see her...
And then he glanced up at the Persian painting of the Caliph, the dancer
and the slave girl and his thoughts returned to the banquet he had thrown for
General Wang and his cronies...
*******************
Erika had knelt there, blonde and helpless, while George had told the six
councillors that he was going to spin the carousel, and that this time they
might make wagers on whom Erika would be facing when the carousel came to rest."
That proposal was received enthusiastically; the councillors, like most
Chinese, being inveterate gamblers. Once their bets had been placed, George
gave the carousel a vigorous push and Erika began to spin around, ending up,
after three revolutions, facing the not-so-honorable General Wang.
All of the men had been drinking heavily, none more so than the General.
He jubilantly collected the money on the table, leaving his wager for the next
spin, and then gave George a puzzled look when George offered him the hem of
the fraulein's outermost veil. At first the warlord didn't understand George's
purpose, but after George had made a pulling gesture with his hand, he had
caught on, and tugged on the veil. As he did so, George gave the carousel
another push, and Erika Weiss slowly spun around as the first veil unwound.
It had been the gauzy veils of the dancing girl in the Persian painting
that been reminded him of the entertainment on the night of the banquet.
With the second spin of the wheel, to the accompaniment of the subdued
excitement of the imperial functionaries, another veil had come off, revealing a
little more of Erika's luscious flesh.
After the third veil had fallen away, baring Erika's long thighs, tanned
golden from her galley-slave ordeal, George had turned to General Wang. "Your
excellency," he began, " Do you know the story of Salome?"
At those words, Erika's eyes had grown wide with dismay.
The tyrannical general, his beady black eyes boring holes in Erika's
remaining garments shook his head silently, "No."
George, ever-gregarious, had continued as if the General had begged him to.
"In the Christian Bible, Salome was a beautiful young woman who was promised
that her any wish would be granted if she would only dance for her stepfather,
the king. Legend has it that she wore seven veils, and removed them one by one
to please him."
"This story is in their Bible?" the general had snarled. "No wonder the
Europeans are such barbarians," he snorted.
"Yes. Well, no, not the veils, exactly. In the bible... well, never mind.
It is of no consequence." Wang's eyes never left Erika's body as George,
somewhat flustered, continued on obsequiously. "You see, I have learned that
this week is the seventh anniversary of your accession to your present office,
General. It is in honor of your years of service to our great emperor that I
have dressed your hostess, here, in seven veils."
"Thank you, Chan," the general muttered, as he bowed stiffly in the crime
lord's direction. Meanwhile his eager comrades were placing wagers for the next
spin. "Very good of you. Spin the wheel, again, if you please."
The gaunt, droopy-bearded Sang Chu-ming stripped away the fourth flimsy
veil, and then Erika was spun again so that she ended up facing the gross Lu
Chow, who was half a foot shorter than she, but weighed twice as much.
Chortling with glee the heavily perspiring bureaucrat pocketed his winnings and
peeled the fifth veil away, baring what seemed like acres of golden mid-section,
notched with an appealing navel of which a Burmese nautch dancer would have been
proud.
The removal of the fourth and fifth veils had left the stunning blonde
naked save for a brief, sarong-like veil of cerulean blue around her womanly
hips, and an even paler and sheerer scrap of nothingness around her surging
breasts. The veil around her waist displayed the smooth length of one long,
luscious leg; the top was no more opaque than a wisp of atmospheric haze; six
pairs of greedy eyes inspected her sumpuous breasts with the thoroughness of a
jeweler examining a piece of jade for flaws.
But for all their meticulously lustful scrutiny, none could find a physical
flaw in the blonde gem they encircled. George Chan's eyes had made a slow
circle around the table. As he had expected, each of the six was entranced by
his blonde slave-goddess, leaning forward slightly to get a better look at the
proud, pink nipple-bullets that pressed so boldly against her upper veil, and
the nest of blonde loveliness that tried in vain to hide itself behind the
lower.
George slowly turned the wheel in a full circle so that each of the
dignitaries could savor Erika's loveliness from every angle. When she was
facing General Wang again, George strode around the room extinguishing the
whale-oil lanterns that had provided the illumination during dinner, leaving the
room dark save for the crystal and silver chandelier that hung directly above
the evening's feature attraction.
The chandelier was actually half chandelier - half candelabra, wheel-shaped
like the carousel, but of a slightly smaller diameter than the circular platform
on which Erika Weiss was so erotically perched. In the center of the hub was an
oil lamp enclosed in a sparkling crystal globe. Each of the six spokes of the
wheel carried a candlestick at its midpoint, and around the circumference of the
wheel were arrayed another dozen candles, each solidly ensconced in a silver
candlestick. Using a long-handled sterling silver candle-lighter, modeled on
one he had seen in an Anglican church during his days at Oxford, George had lit
the candles one by one.
When he was done, the sentinels of light flickered brightly in the
darkness. The crystal and silver in the framework of the chandelier became a
shimmering sea of mirrors, refracting the glimmering candlelight in a hundred
directions, and bathing the semi-nude Erika in an eerie, but strangely beautiful
aura of reflected light.
The six guests ooohed at the artistic play of light on the luscious body of
the blonde showpiece. Wang's bald head caught the edge of the shimmering
cylinder of light and took on an unearthly, menacing cast.
At length George Chan spun the wheel again and the blonde missionary's
daughter began yet another slow circuit around the table. She could feel the
searing gaze of fourteen eyes devouring her female flesh. Once, twice, three
times she passed the sinister figure of General Wang before coming to rest in
front of the Commissioner of Seals. Fong, wild-eyed with lust and alcohol, had
been studying what remained of her costume and had noticed that the brief piece
of blue silken nothingness -- that succeeded at neither concealing nor
restraining the proud thrust of her breasts -- was held together by nothing more
than a fragile bow between them.
Fong reached for the knot. Erika shrank from his extended hand, but there
was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Fong frowned angrily as she pulled back
and glanced meaningfully at General Wang who gave Erika a baleful stare. As
Fong's green-robed hand reached for her, Erika noticed that the commissioner's
right index finger bore a large signet ring, an implement he presumably used to
affix the emperor's seal to important documents.
The commissioner's bony hand found one end of the pale blue bow, and he
pulled on it with a smooth even movement, undoing the frail knot. Moments later,
he leisurely peeled the filmy fabric away from Erika's body, revealing her
magnificent breasts in all of their nude loveliness. The temperature in the
banquet room seemed to rise several degrees as the greedy gaze of the royal
councillors feasted on her splendidly pink-nippled pleasure-globes.
Subtly, George Chan reached in once again and turned the carousel slowly so
that each man could get a good look at Erika's swollen lust-mounds. Her firm,
thrusting turrets were made even more desirable by the play of the reflected
candlelight over the rich curves, alternately bathing them in shimmering light
and cloaking them in seductive shadow. There were areas on her back that still
had a few faint patches of lightly flaking skin -- an after-effect of the
fearful sunburn to which she had been subjected on her first day at the mountain
lodge. A small area just above her left nipple was equally afflicted; strangely
that slight defect seemed only to heighten the desirability of George Chan's
blonde slave-goddess. As if it somehow proved that she was real and not an
image from some strange opium-induced dream.
As she passed slowly in front of the sweating fat man, she heard Lu Chow's
high-pitched voice comment obscenely to his neighbors at table, "What a pair of
tits, eh! What say you, old one? They don't grow them like that in Tsingtao,
I'll bet."
The elderly Doctor Wang leered at Erika with eyes fatigued by upwards of
fourscore years of life. Erika noticed that the octogenarian had, like other
dignitaries of his generation, let his fingernails grow exceedingly long. The
General's uncle gently scratched the edge of his white beard with one inch-long
nail, before commenting, "Nephew, you must thank our host for sharing this
treasure of nature with us."
Erika's slow revolution continued past the bespectacled and intoxicated
young Cheng, the general's aide, who seemed so out of place among these older,
more powerful men, until she came to rest once more before the sinister warlord,
his bald head gleaming evilly in the eerie light. The general opened his mouth
in a shark-like smile, his features so menacing that Erika, without thinking,
lifted her hands up to shield her delicious breasts from his rapacious gaze.
Immediately upon her so doing the general recoiled angrily. "What?!?' he
roared. "You dare to cover yourself, whore, before the representatives of the
Emperor! This is an insult to the Emperor himself!"
Wang reached over, and grabbed the scrap of silk that Fong had just
stripped away from Erika's lust-melons. "Tie her hands, Chan, lest she attempt
such effrontery again!"
"No...please... I'm sor..."
"Silence!!" the general roared, as his cronies nodded their complaisant
heads in agreement.
The general's autocratic manner intimidated even a man of George Chan's
wealth and power. George directed Erika to put her hands behind her back, and
he began to encircle her wrists with the strip of blue silk. "Tighter!" the
general bellowed through clenched teeth. "Wrist to elbow." The general snatched
up a couple of the discarded veils and handed them to George. "Tie her
properly, Mr. Chan."
George Chan nodded and set about the business of bondage -- a business he
knew so very well. Within a few minutes, Erika's upper arms were cinched
together behind her by encircling bands of silk, while her forearms were pulled
firmly behind her, parallel to the table, so that the fingertips of her right
hand touched her left elbow and vice versa. Two more strips of silk lashed her
arms together behind her painfully.
From his vantage point behind her, George could not see, but knew from
personal experience that this newly imposed bondage would thrust Erika's
mouthwatering breasts into even more provocative prominence.
"Well done, Chan. Fong, does it not remind you of those women in
Wu-ch'ang?'
Commissioner Fong, who had been the General's Intelligence Officer during
the campaigns of the Taiping Rebellion remembered the incident well. Wang's
troops had been searching for several rebel leaders who had fled the city of
Wu-ch'ang. In their haste two had been compelled to leave their families
behind. Each had had a daughter in her early twenties, whom Hsi Fong's men had
quickly arrested. The elite guard of the intelligence unit had brought the two
struggling young women back to the General's improvised headquarters outside the
city limits, on the banks of the great Yangtze Kiang.
There in the open area of a hastily-built stockade, Fong had had the two
young women stripped and tied with their arms tightly bound around thick bamboo
poles that had been wedged painfully behind their backs. General Wang had
watched with admiring interest as their firm young breasts, like Erika's, had
been thrust forward by that strict bondage, as if they had been tempting
sacrificial offerings to the brutal gods of war. Both girls had claimed not to
know of their fathers' whereabouts, but it was not until after a pair of Fong's
strongest guards had each delivered a hundred savage strokes with a thin bamboo
cane to the breasts, buttocks and thighs of the agonized young women, that Fong
had reluctantly come to the conclusion that they were telling the truth.
The General had then presented the barely conscious young women to the
company of soldiers who had most distinguished themselves in the fighting for
the city. One of the girls had survived thirty hours in the keeping of the
sex-starved soldiers, the other only twelve. A pity, Fong had thought -- they
had both been exquisite.
"How could I forget them, your excellency?" The Commissioner of Seals
replied. "I never forget those who have offended our noble Emperor." With
that, Fong gave Erika a withering glance.
Out of the corner of his eye, George Chan could see a thin film of spittle
oozing from the mouth of Commissioner Fong, while his be-ringed right hand
opened and closed in a menacing fist.
Though Erika's bonds were silken, they were no less confining, and not less
tight than had they been of heavy rope. When George was satisfied with his
handiwork, he gave the carousel a seventh and final spin. This time it came to
rest in front of Cheng. The bookish young man's spectacles were fogged over
with excitement as he reached for the belt-like fringe of silk at her waist.
"Pull it, boy!" encouraged the crude, slimy-sounding voice of Sang
Chu-ming, who contrived to look emaciated even after consuming a huge meal.
"Let's have a look at what the German whore's got under there."
Timidly Cheng reached for the knot and undid it, and then slowly drew the
intricately-wrapped rectangle of gauze away from the blonde's blushing
nakedness. Cheng's eyes dropped to the mysterious cleft between her legs.
"What's the matter, boy? Never seen pussy before?" Lu Chow squeaked in his
unpleasant high-pitched falsetto.
Cheng blushed, but it was true. He had never been with a woman. Toiling
laboriously sixteen hours a day for the demanding general, he had hardly had the
time or the energy for women. But he had dreamed... Oh, how he had dreamed --
of dark-haired, almond-eyed girls with breasts that were at once round and
pointed. Of warm thighs blushingly parting to admit his hands, his mouth, his
manhood. Of sweet young maidens writhing in sexual ecstasy beneath him...
He had had just such a dream this very morning before waking. But who
would have guessed this morning that by nightfall he would be stripping the
final flimsy garment from a creature more exotic, more beautiful than he had
ever imagined? He had long since forgiven the European girl her blue eyes and
blonde hair, which had played no part in his dreams. The lush curves of her
creamy-gold body, more than made up for those slight genetic imperfections.
The young man let his young eyes rove caressingly over Erika's sumptuous
breasts, the delicious nook of her belly button, and the enticing blonde-fringed
gash between her satiny thighs. Out of the corner of his eye, Cheng could see
the aged Dr Wang leaning forward, his white beard only inches from the blonde's
shapely buttocks.
Meanwhile, General Wang had been ogling Erika's succulent lust-melons. He
was nodding his head up and down as if he had made a decision. An irrevocable
decision. "The girl must be punished, Chan, for her insult to the Emperor."
"N-n-nein...No..." Erika implored the diners, her beautiful blue eyes
searching for empathy around the table. But she was to find no succor there.
"Absolutely, your excellency!" It was the reedy voice of Sang Chu-ming
behind her.
"Most assuredly, general," oozed the equally sycophantic Lu Chow, his eyes
feverish with lust as he admired Erika's ripe, round buttocks. His short fat
cock pressed aggressively against his cobalt blue robe. "And punished
severely."
George Chan had almost chuckled under his breath at this display of
toadyism. The evening had proceeded as if he had written the script.
"Of course, your excellency," George had bowed obsequiously. "As you
desire."
Erika had looked plaintively at Cheng, the General's timid-looking
adjutant. "You," her eyes seemed to say, "are young, like me. You know I meant
no harm. Only you can...'
"Cheng!" the general bellowed. The young man ripped his intruding eyes
from the blonde tendrils that enveloped Erika's velvety pleasure-nook. His eyes
met the imploring, tear-filled eyes of the blonde prisoner.
"Yes, sir!"
"Turn her so that she faces me."
George Chan had watched as Cheng looked into the sad eyes of Erika Weiss
for a long moment.
"Cheng!!" the general hissed. "I do not like to repeat myself."
At this outburst, as George had known he would, the timorous young man
dropped his eyes from the searching gaze of the wretched young woman.
"Certainly, your excellency!" he responded as he shamefacedly gave the carousel
a one-sixth turn, so that Erika Weiss was face to face with the scowling visage
of General Wang.
Trying not to think of those sad eyes, the craven young man adjusted his
spectacles, and guiltily attempted to concentrate on his disappointment at
losing his excellent vantage point.
When Cheng had looked away, Erika had despaired of anyone rescuing her from
her predicament.
"Please," she had begged the general, "I didn't mean to hide myself
...See? Here... look... I will show you..." The debased blue-eyed beauty
spread her thighs slightly so that the General was treated to a glimpse of her
alluring quim. Her pussy seemed to be quivering in the shimmering candle-light.
The balding warlord smiled lewdly, enjoying Erika's degradation. "You will
come to regret your impudence, blue-eyes," he seethed.
"N-n-no...Bitte... Please...You don't need to hurt me. See...." Erika
spread her thighs even wider as Cheng gawked in wonder. "You can see everything
now. Ple..."
"Silence!! Enough of your whining, whore! Do you think that showing us
your sluttish cunt will spare you from your rightful punishment? Do you think
that it will prevent us from defending the emperor's honor? No, fraulein,"
General Wang's voice lowered to a cruel, rasping whisper, as he lowered his
predatory gaze to Erika's heaving ripe-nippled breasts, "it will not!"
